Carl Jenkins' Allegretto in a minor scale, i don't remember now if its in Gm or Dm but i do remember how i loved it the very first time i heard it. A group of 16 musicians were playing it in the grand Jamshedji Bhabha Concert hall at the NCPA in Mumbai. The waves of the Arabian sea lap at the compound walls of the auditorium which contains a roaring ocean of artistes and connoisseurs within the compounds. The piece seemed to be written for the people who were presenting it that evening. It had all the qualities of the people - revolt,struggle,misery,pathos. It just resonated with their feelings. Carl Jenkins was born a thousand miles away from these people in a prosperous Britain. These less privileged people were from Kazakhstan. It used to be a small province in Soviet Russia. Today, its a republic but its more a memory of the devastation wrought upon it by the Russians during the cold war. Kazakhstan used to be a testing ground for the nuclear weapons developed during those cold times. It was a true wonder that these people could produce such fabulous music despite of having come from a land which has no economy to even mention about and filled with children maimed by genetic defects - a grave reminder of the nuclear tests. The lady on the cello reminded me of my grand mom who bore ten children of which seven survived and were brought up by her on a paltry amount of money handed over to her by my granddad who had already retired from the army on a pension of a few hundreds. But the woman also reminded me of passion, hard work, years of patient practice and the undying thirst for listening and playing good music. these individuals continue to inspire me to never give up what is the greatest gift that god could have bestowed upon me, my ear for music and my passion to express my feelings through every note audible to the human ear. I wasn't too surprised when this group of people grew to an amazing number of sixty musicians and this time they were professional in their performance, appearance and they fully deserved the applause which rang through the auditorium at the end of their performance. But the man behind this miracle was Marat, the violinist and conductor of this fine group of musicians. Hailing from Kazakhstan, he studied music in Russia and then returned to his homeland to build this fantastic orchestra. What set this orchestra apart was the sheer abandon with which they played all those classical 'numbers'. Mozart, Beethoven, Rachmanninov, no one was spared from their unique touch. The conservatives,of course, favored their blue-blooded Munich symphony and Vienna Philharmonic but people like me fell in love with the music of these Kazakhs, which came like a fresh breath of air.
I am no more in touch with the brilliant performances which must still be happening at the NCPA but i can never forget all that i've heard. There's another concert which i must mention here but leave it to you to imagine about. Imagine this - Aman and Ayaan Ali Bangash playing with a Cellist from London. Don't think i need to write about that....
